Fourteen years before Stonewall, a raid by the Baltimore police on the Pepper Hill Club ted 162 gay men. Six police wagons had to make 24 trips to shuttle all the arrted men om the club to the…
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PEPPER GAY
* pepper mill gay *
Histori explorg Baltimore’s queer history om pennt trans/rearcher Jamie Grace Alexanr & illtrator Josie Breck @josie_b_bFourteen years before Stonewall, a raid by the Baltimore police on the Pepper Hill Club ted 162 gay men. This story om the archiv of the Baltimore Sun reportg on the arrt & subsequent mass Pepper Hill Club was loted at 200 North Gay Street, only a block om the ma police statn, two blocks om Cy Hall, and on the g of “The Block, ” Baltimore’s sex & entertament district ntag many strip bars and peep patrons were seen huggg and kissg each other, along wh other unnamed acts of “cency. Arrtg officer and head of the vice squad Hyman Goldste also claimed that he warned the owners not to “allow homosexuals to ngregate there, ” but Lance nied 11 p.
This scriptn was apt that scribed the lack of ntrol police had over the mass of patrons as well as police’s abily to distguish homosexuals the crowd.
In short, the urts led that, while homosexualy was still immoral their ey, there was not sufficient evince to prove any one person's guilt — this also protected the fendants and didn’t out them. In the 1950s McCarthyism orchtrated a wch hunt & mass firg of gay ernment workers, as well as creased policg for the D. Gay muny.